Unknown Member XIII
by smileyfacebabe
Summary: When Roxas entered the job he knew nothing. When he exited he knew hundred upon hundreds of things the public would never get the chance to hear. Maybe he was happier that way. Maybe he wasn't. Warning: character death, AU


**A/N:** This is what happened when I watch the first thirty-sixty minutes of _2012_. It makes me wonder about the end of everything. And, uh, change things so I can put Roxas there. Because Roxas is adorable and hot and makes me smile, even when he's a sad little emo kid.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Kingdom Hearts or the movie, _2012_, which inspired this.

When Roxas entered the job he knew no more than the average citizen. He was completely unaware of what he was about to get into, nor what he would never get out of. The wind-swept blonde knew nothing of politics, of secret experiments, nor of the agents he would soon befriend in the strangest of ways.

A week into the unrecorded, mostly unknown job called Member XII he wondered if he would have been happier not knowing what went on behind closed doors. But he didn't question his job, nor did he question the reasons it was kept in the shadows. He learned hundreds of things the public would never know of. Hundreds of things the public could never know of.

Things like the killing, the sneaking, the lying, the cheating, and things like the experiments that stared and stared at you with piercing yellow eyes.

He changed his mind when everything went to hell, six months into his job, his job as Member XIII. He changed his mind when the Heartless, a mad-scientist's worst nightmare that literally bred in shadows, escaped from captivity and into the world.

Heartless were vicious, as their names suggested, and they killed without thought or mercy. They clawed and scratched at their victims' chests until their hearts were removed from their bodies, and that is how they came by their names. A sick joke, a blunt warning, the black-as-night creatures could travel anywhere a shadow touched.

And after six months of lying, sneaking, hiding and cheating, they were accidently released upon the world.

Suddenly Roxas had a new job, though it was still called Member XIII, and that was to fight and kill all Heartless. It was as unrecorded and hidden as the last, only hundreds of times more dangerous.

His fellow agents were taught to fight alongside him, and then they were sent out into the world, all over the world, in pairs. All over the world, to every corner and dip the shadows touched.

The public was not told about the creatures that now lurked in their mist. They were kept in the dark as it was.

Six months into his job Roxas started questioning the reasons behind it. But it was too late to stop what had been started, and the world's leaders started a program to save certain people, people in the know-how, people in the top-most inner circle, from the timeless, imminent death they would have at the wrath of the Heartless. Roxas' whole life lived in shadows now, rested behind closed doors and half in the hands of greedy liars, half in the claws of vicious man-made beasts. He wasn't sure which half was safer.

Roxas fought, he fought hard against the monsters that would just multiply by the millions once the sun went down, side-by-side with his best friend. He fought next to his pacifistic, music-loving comrade, he fought next to his book-smart, quiet ally, and he fought next to the only girl he had ever seen wield knives with such startling ferocity. He fought next to them, and behind closed doors, it was decided that he would come with them, off the world that was being destroyed and to a newer, Heartless-free place.

Roxas' questions multiplied along with the Heartless.

So he left. Just slipped away before he could be taken to the ship, before he could be herded out like a good, brainless little lackey. He slipped out of the grasp of the lying, the cheating, and into the unknowledgeable populace. He fell completely into the claws of the Heartless, but he was free from lies now.

But he still fought; he fought the Heartless with all of his ability, power, and heart. The only difference was where he once had a comrade, a friend, a best friend at his side, now he only had darkness. He still fought however, and while he spun he listened.

He listened to the sounds of mothers screaming for their children and fathers trying, and failing, to protect their families. He listened to the sound of hundreds of millions dying without even the slightly comforting knowledge of what was killing them so brutally. He listened to everything around him, because in the darkness you couldn't see a thing, not the claws that slashed at you, or the teeth that ripped your skin. He listened to stay alive, even when he knew he would die within the month.

It was by pure chance that he was near enough to hear the one sound that signaled his fast approaching death. It was the sound of a giant engine roaring to life, shaking the darkness and drowning out the hissing of the Heartless for a minute in time.

It was the sound of the ship that held the world's richest and most important people, along with his friends and comrades, taking off.

The sound throbbed through Roxas, for he was literally that close, and suddenly the light from the engine's blast lit up the surrounding area. Hundreds of pairs of eyes stared back at Roxas, glimmering and reflecting the light they hated. The end was here; Roxas knew that for sure, because even with all their self-concern and selfishness those rick liars wouldn't leave until the very last second.

Their departure was the signature on Roxas' death certificate.

So Roxas readjusted his grip on his twin swords and smiled grimly, spinning out into the hoards of wicked darkness. His blades flashed in the quickly dying light.

The blue-eyed blonde's last thoughts were of his friends sitting save aboard the giant ship.

A flash of green eyes and red hair. A snippet of a soft voice describing the plot to the latest book he read. A female's voice laughing loudly as a male's yelled about his plants that were used as target practice. Music throbbing through his ears, pulsing in time to his endangered heart.

As free as he felt in those last seconds, he hoped there would be another chance, in another life maybe. Because those people that he came to love were worth the cage. Feeling free was something to die for, sure, but friends were something to live for.

He liked to think, for that last painful second before everything went black, that he lived out here, in the dark so they could safely board that ship.

Like the unknowledgeable public he would never know if he was right or wrong.

He was happier that way.


End file.
